47-YEAR-OLD Thomas Hughes from Coatbridge is behind bars in Belfast after being caught with the explosive - the largest amount recovered in the last ten years.

A SCOTS republican sympathiser has been caught in Belfast with Northern Ireland’s biggest haul of Semtex in ten years, police say.

Thomas Hughes, 47, is behind bars after the seizure of the massive cache of explosives - enough for dissident republicans to make twenty car bombs.

Hughes, from Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, has been charged with having 2.5 kg of the plastic explosive with intent to endanger life, we can reveal.

Hughes appeared in the dock at Belfast Magistrates’ Court wearing a green T-shirt and jeans.

He confirmed that he understood the single charge against him after the Semtex was allegedly found in an airing cupboard at his house at Maeve House in north Belfast on Wednesday, April 30.

During a failed bail application, a detective constable told how the plastic explosive had been found when officers carried out a search in response to a tip off.

The detective said: “This is the largest amount which had been seized in Northern Ireland in 10 years and undoubtedly would have been used in the manufacture of numerous explosive devices.”

The officer explained that the explosive material was the size of a brick and had been cut in two and wrapped in cling film and tinfoil “most likely for purposes of distribution to other terrorist cells”.

He said Semtex was such a valuable asset to dissident Republican terrorists that it was would “only have been placed in the safekeeping of someone who would be a trusted individual”.

The officer said police objected to Hughes’ release amid fears he would reoffend, use the support network for dissident republicans to flee the jurisdiction, and alert his co-conspirators to evidence held by police.

There was enough Semtex found to make 20 car bombs

Defence solicitor Michael Madden said Mr Hughes was “shocked and horrified” when the “highly volatile” Semtex was shown to him.

He said his client had a drink problem and was an unsuspecting “easy target”.

The lawyer claimed that though Hughes came from a republican background, he was a strong supporter of the peace process, and was vehemently opposed to dissident activity.

He said he lived at his partners address and others had access to the flat where the Semtex was found.

In recent years Semtex has emerged as the explosive of choice among the dissident Republican terrorists.

In March it was used in a bomb attack on police in west Belfast.

A family escaped injury when their car was hit by debris from a mortar fired from a tube attached to railings at the City Cemetery.

A group calling itself the IRA said the mortar contained newly acquired Semtex, rather than old supplies previously under the control of the Provisional IRA.

Even small amounts of the Czech-made explosive can be used to deadly effect.

It can be used in armour-piercing grenades, mortars, under-car boobytrap devices, and even shoulder-fired rockets.

Three tons of Semtex are thought to have reached the Provisional IRA in several shipments from General Gaddafi’s Libyan regime in the 1980s.

It was used in mortar attacks on Downing Street and Heathrow airport at the height of the troubles.

But it is only in recent years it has re-emerged in the hands of groups such as the Real IRA.

District Judge Harry McKibbin refused Hughes’ bail application on the grounds of the risk of reoffending, and remanded the Scot in custody to appear again on May 30 via videolink.

He said: “I’m not convinced at all by the explanations and it would be foolhardy to release him on bail.”

As Hughes, who is thought to have been living in Belfast for around 15 years, was led away he waved to supporters in the public gallery at the hearing on Saturday.